Metropole Consultants

Planning for the 21st century city.

Metropole Consultants’ distinct approach grounds city plan- and policy-making within a deep understanding of the complex social, technological and economic forces that shape cities today.

Services

Metropole Consultants conducts research and analysis, and crafts effective policy in the following areas:

aligning planning and financial policies & signals

Metropole Consultants undertakes work to ensure that an organisation’s broader range of existing policies and tools are aligned to support planning policy or strategic outcomes – for example, that municipal financial tools like development charges or user fees are aligned with municipal planning or sustainability policies.
Sample project: NRTEE, Environmental Quality in Canadian Cities

Metropole Consultants is offering a new service in which it conducts an alignment review for organisations, identifying where various programs or policies could be better aligned, to improve effectiveness and often in so doing, to reduce spending.

economic development strategies

Metropole Consultants undertakes economic development strategies based on rigorous analysis and our proprietary model of the dynamics of urban economies.
Sample project: Competitiveness Study, City of Toronto

cities, planning and competitiveness

Metropole Consultants undertakes projects aimed at identifying and exploiting synergies between economic development, environment and planning policy. An example is integrating competitiveness considerations into official plans and planning policy.
Sample project: Regina Official Community Plan

integrated urban development strategies

Metropole Consultants produces integrated development strategies for specific urban issues or city districts – for example, for community improvement, or attracting development to specific locations, such as downtowns, suburban centres or transit station areas. Strategic approaches may include the integration of planning, policy, design, incentives, economic dynamics, or market considerations.
Sample project: Calgary South-east Centre

urban regeneration strategies

Metropole Consultants undertakes urban regeneration strategies that integrate physical regeneration with good planning and urban design, and an understanding of the underlying urban economic and market dynamics that drive change.

research on urban issues and policy

Metropole Consultants conducts and coordinates research on a range of topical issues re the physical and economic evolution of cities, including urban economies, urban development patterns, and the socio-economic geography of cities.
Sample project: The Growth Opportunity

official plans, community plans, regional plans

Metropole Consultants uses its unique approach to develop effective and integrated policy for official plans, community and district plans, and regional plans.
Sample project: Regina Official Community Plan

Perverse Cities

Hidden Subsidies, Wonky Policies and Urban Sprawl

“Analytical and detailed in its approach…consistently daring in challenging accepted views of the causes of and solutions for urban sprawl”.
– The Donner Book Prize Jury

“Pamela Blais’ book Perverse Cities is the best explanation I have read for the persistence of urban sprawl. A must read for urbanists.”
– http://twitter.com/terrypender

Blog

Or: What kinds of economic activities are we planning for? This is obviously an important question in planning, and one to which the answer has been changing rapidly as urban economies transform in response to a globalizing economy. While it’s relatively straightforward to forecast residential housing demand, projecting demand for non-residential development is much trickier, […]

Cities are being reshaped by an increasingly global economy. Virtually all cities are subject to transformation – either because their economies are increasingly integrated with the global economy, or in a dwindling few instances, transformed in different ways because their economies lie outside of it. Globalization is the economic equivalent of climate change. Yet, unlike […]

With an election coming this fall, the federal role in cities, and the need for and content of a national urban strategy will undoubetdly be the subject of much debate – at least among urbanists. To date, the focus has tended to be on infrastructure funding. But the debate should be much broader. Infrastructure funding […]

This past weekend, I was thrilled to present at the Congress for the New Urbanism in Buffalo, NY (CNU 22). Peter Katz and Joe Minicozzi showed how municipal revenue returns from compact development are exponentially higher than for conventional development. My presentation exposed the hidden, perverse subsidies that are embedded in our everyday financial tools, […]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! Development charges (“DCs”) are price signals, as such they influence decisions around land use and shape development patterns. But DCs rarely follow the basic economic principle that, in order to achieve the proverbial “efficient allocation of resources” (read: efficient urban development patterns and infrastructure) prices should […]

Aligning DCs with other public objectives Issue: Conflicts between development charges and Provincial planning and transit objectives Though DCs are often seen simply as a revenue-raising tool, the reality is that they have broader impacts, including their important role in shaping urban development patterns. Given these broader impacts, there is a need to ensure that […]

Structuring the Charge Issue: hidden cross subsidies embedded in DCs The ultimate objective of the DC process is to establish the dollar amounts that will be charged against new development to cover the cost of the needed infrastructure. In so doing, we need to recognize the economic role that these DC levels play. They are […]

Development charges… the very mention of the words has been observed to cause a glazing of the eyes. However, “DCs” are important to cities, for many reasons. And the Ontario government is currently reviewing its Development Charges Act, and looking for input. Herewith the first instalment of some thoughts on the issue. DCs are an […]

The Province’s Transit Investment Advisory Panel will soon release a report with its recommendations on how to fund Let’s Move – the $50 billion transit investment program. The Panel’s focus is new revenue tools – including Metrolinx’s own short list: increased development charges, increased sales tax, a parking levy, and an increased fuel and gas […]